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Eaton Centre shooting: Accused man Christopher Husbands worked with kids while on house arrest

By Niamh Scallan, Laura Stone and Daniel DaleStaff Reporters

Wed., June 6, 2012

A quick change in policy Wednesday now requires new hires to provide a police check before they do even a stitch of work for the City of Toronto. But that was small consolation to parents angry and upset that the alleged Eaton Centre gunman was allowed to work with kids while on house arrest, accused of sexual assault.

“It’s really upsetting,” said Lorraine Scattarelli, whose 8-year-old daughter Emily attends the program where Husbands worked. The criminal record check, she said, “should have been done in the beginning.”

At the time of the shooting, Christopher Husbands was out on $4,000 bail and under house arrest for an outstanding 2010 sex assault charge. (Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

“It’s unbelievable for me that they didn’t do the police record check,” said Maria, whose 10-year-old son is in the program. “I’m more scared; I don’t know what to think.”

City staff confirmed Wednesday that Husbands, 23, had worked at Stan Wadlow Clubhouse’s after-school recreation care program (ARC) for children aged 6 to 12 in East York for about six months.

He was employed until May 18, two weeks before the Eaton Centre food court incident in which one person was killed and seven others injured. Husbands turned himself in to police on Monday.

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At the time of the shooting, he was out on $4,000 bail and under house arrest awaiting trial on a 2010 charge of sex assault.

Alessandra Murillo, whose 8-year-old son Santiago also attends ARC, said the city should do a better job of screening.

“It’s mind-boggling,” she said. “How do you know if your kids are safe in these programs?”

She added that Husbands, who police accuse of having gang ties, could have put the children in danger. “What happened at the Eaton Centre could have happened here,” she said.

But the parents were quick to add that centre staff do a great job. Many said Husbands was a good counsellor, regardless of his criminal history.

Scattarelli’s daughter Emily remembered Husbands, whom she calls Chris, as one of the nicest counsellors, who did arts and crafts with the kids, and played soccer and baseball.

Under longstanding recreation department policy, Husbands would have been allowed three months to provide a criminal-background check — a grace period put in place because of how long it can take police to provide the document.

But that policy was changed Wednesday in a meeting with Mayor Rob Ford and Jim Hart, the general manager of Parks, Recreation and Foresty, according to Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, chair of the community development and recreation committee.

Husbands “fell through the cracks (and) I suspect there will be others,” said Hart, adding that his department planned to check all of some 10,000 staff members currently employed.

Ford told reporters he was “very upset and very disturbed” at the news, saying all city employees should have a criminal-background check, though he didn’t detail what type of background should disqualify people from working for the city.

City spokeswoman Jackie DeSouza refused to say whether the city was aware of Husbands’ criminal history when he was hired last November, or why his employment ended.

Mammoliti, however, said there was an “ongoing attempt” to get a background check from Husbands, but he never turned over the information and eventually left his job.

Meanwhile, debate raged at Queen’s Park over Ontario’s house arrest and bail system, as Attorney General John Gerretsen fended off attacks from the Progressive Conservatives over the fact the Eaton Centre suspect was under house arrest at the time.

Husbands’ bail conditions required him to be at his residence at all times, seven days a week, except to go directly to and from school or while in the company of one of his sureties.

Husbands faces one count of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder. He remains in custody.

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